Takizakura in full bloom!

I finally visited the amazing Miharu Takizakura tree!! And it definitely did not disappoint.

Miharu Takizakura is a 1000 year old weeping cherry blossom tree in Miharu Town, Fukushima Prefecture. Locals know it is over a millenia old because of references to the tree that they have found in ancient literature. How cool is that?!

The shape of the tree has changed over the centuries, due to earthquakes and heavy snowfall, and its shape now is almost unrecognisable to that in photos taken in 1922.

I knew it was going to be big, but I guess seeing photos of the tree couldn’t really prepare me for the sheer scale of it.

I was lucky to be able to visit the tree when it came into full bloom. And what’s even more lucky is that the weather was amazing!

These photos were taken on Tuesday April 16! The weather this week is pretty hot though, so if you’d like to visit the tree this year, I’d recommend going sooner rather than later.

Although there was quite a lot of people visiting Takizakura at the same time as us, we still managed to take some very peaceful and serene looking photos. There are a number of viewpoints dotted around the area, and we could get a clear view of the tree from each of them – so my enjoyment of the tree wasn’t negatively impacted by the other visitors.

I knew that Takizakura was going to be beautiful, but before arriving, I didn’t know about the Inari Shrine that stands right next to the tree. The shrine is protected by its own cherry blossom tree, which makes for some very cool photos (see above!)

I love photography, so I really enjoyed the challenge of trying to capture the beauty and scale of Miharu Takizakura in just one photo, but I recommend this cherry blossom tree to anybody, whether you’re interested in photography, having a picnic, gazing up at the beautiful flowers before having some food at one of the festival stalls, or visiting at night for the awesome light up.

By the way, here is a photo of what Miharu Takizakura looked like last week during the evening light-up on a particularly snowy day: